Waterfalls
by TheLucarioButler
Summary: A poor, fear-stricken colony is home to a young riolu and his dying mother. While on a mission to save her, the riolu is taken away by large black-clad monsters to their surprisingly rich and luxurious home city. As he unravels the mystery of what they wish to do with him, he learns that his life is not the only one on the line and that he may be the sole reason his colony lives.
1. Chapter 1: Three Green Eyes

Chapter 1: Three Green Eyes

Tender footpaws scratched against the damp black cobblestones, flinching slightly at the sharp broken stones poking up from the muddy puddles created from the rain washing the dirt and grime from their hiding places. The black night sky provided the only sounds, the steady patter of rain and a faint low rumble of thunder in the distance. A young riolu, no older than six, ran as fast as his minuscule stride would allow. In his paws was a now soaked white paper bag with an almost illegible red and blue slip of paper stapled to it. Rain dripped down the riolu's dirty sky blue cheeks like tears, flowing into his panting maw and causing him to let out a stifled cough. Despite his need to breathe, he dare not make a sound.

One false step caused the central toe of his right leg to dig into one of the sharp stones, cutting into it and letting out a silenced cry of pain and a drop of crimson blood, which mixed with the rain water and disappeared almost immediately. The pup ducked out of the main street and into a side alley to crouch down and take hold of his wound, trying to hold back tears any child would let out from such a sudden sharp pain. He didn't have time. His other now shaking paw tightened its grip on the soaked paper bag, reminding him of his mission.

He stood again and peeked out to scan the almost pitch black row of houses. There was no power for lights and too much fear for candles to be lit to indicate any life in a home. Darkness was the illusion of death and in death there was safety. The riolu choked back his tears and started running again, praying they would not hear his labored breath; the monsters with the three green eyes.

They traveled in the dead of night, stealthily stomping through the deathly quiet streets. Everyone pretended they couldn't hear, and the beasts pretended they weren't heard. They went about their business in a coordinated dance; sliding against walls, which left deep scratch marks in the rotted wood; pointing the lights strapped to the firearms they carried into windows and into places just wide enough for the emaciated forms of the citizens of the colony to squeeze into; and returning to formation, a black clad flood with dozens of bright green eyes.

He had heard too many stories of them. The children and adults alike did not hide the truth even from a young innocent like him. If they caught you in their beams, you died. The beasts made no sounds. Their weapons spoke for them, and their language was not one of mercy. The sound of their predation on the poor fools who dared to be out after dark brought him many sleepless nights. His mother slept near the window to shield him from their lights. He prayed they never passed by his home. She would surely die protecting him.

But it was on this night that he sought to protect her. She had begged him to stay, assuring him that she would make it through the night. He knew she was lying. He had seen the blood. It dripped from everywhere it could, sneaking out to leave ruby red stains on her sunflower yellow fur, her blanket, the floor, the rim of the pot that served as their toilet…. She was in constant pain. Even her soft smile had become a strained worried lie to her child that everything would be alright. She had tried to put off getting the medication she needed to have a little more food in the cupboard. Her hesitance had sent him out that night. He had heard that a kindly old lucario physician, who had on more than one occasion given him a cup of broth to satiate his painful hunger without having to be asked, had gathered the ingredients needed to make the life-saving medication. The old lucario had seen what his mother had been doing and, knowing that she would wait till the last minute, had mixed the necessary ingredients so that she could have it closer by than the far edge of the colony.

The riolu had not argued with her. He couldn't risk her changing his mind. He had pulled the door closed, knowing she was too weak to follow and ran out into the night to pick it up. The old physician had tried to keep him at his home for the night as well, but he knew he would wake up all alone if he did. She would die, the only one in his family left in his life.

He wasn't too far now. Their house was one at the end of the street, the one with the half caved-in second floor that had forced them to seal it off and live in the one room ground floor that served as their kitchen. They had even had to take apart the table to make room for the collection of blankets and one pillow each that served as their beds. He could see the house growing larger before him. He wanted to cry out to his mother to tell her he had made it. His paws were quaking, still holding an iron-tight grip to the soaked bag of medicine. Tears of relief were welling up in his eyes.

He stopped. His ear twitched at a click coming from behind him. His blood ran cold, and the tears of relief began to flow as bitter tears of terror. He turned slowly around to meet the piercing beam of a light mounted on the barrel of a black metallic gun and three…green…eyes.


	2. Chapter 2: The City Bathed in Light

Chapter 2: The City Bathed in Light

The riolu stared in stunned silence into the face of the monsters of legend. The only sounds he made were stifled sniffles as the tears flowed. A thought passed through his terrified mind that if he made as little noise as possible, the towering monster would move along. Several other identical monsters moved out from behind the first, forming a wall in front of him. It only took three to block the entire street. They had massive armored bodies with even more weapons on their backs than the ones they carried. They were completely black apart form their bright green eyes, so black that the wall they formed seemed to create a vacuum of nothingness that pulled the air straight out of his lungs. His whole body shook like a single leaf in a hurricane. Only feet from his home, he would die. They would crush the medicine beneath their feet, and his mother would die with her last sight being his drenched corpse.

His trembling lips mouthed out a weak plea for mercy, but he could not summon enough breath to put sound to it. The monsters hardly seemed interested in what he had to say as they readied their firearms. His stomach twisted into an excruciatingly painful knot. "P…P…" He put the force of scream to squeak out the sound. "P-P…" His tears stung his eyes and his face turned red with frustration that he could not force out the only chance he'd have to get his mother the medicine. "P-P-Pl… P… Ple…"

The monsters lowered their guns, their bright green eyes still shining on him. He had wondered what had made them stop. His half-syllable plea couldn't have done it unless they were amazed he could even say that much. They seemed to be paying attention to something else, some kind of silent direction or at least not one he could hear. They had stopped moving, like machines turning dormant until a new command was issued. He tried to take a step backward, but this caused the immediate raising of the monster's weapons. He froze, not daring to move again. The silent direction now seemingly received, the mechanistic monsters started moving once again, this time one reaching for him. He fell back into a puddle, holding up the bag of medicine as both a way to communicate his mission and a makeshift shield only strong enough to protect him in his terrified juvenile mind. "P-Please! L-Let me give this to my m-momma!" he sobbed. "I l-live right there!" He pointed to the house up ahead. "Please!" He could only sit submissively, crying and waiting for what they would do to him for speaking.

One of the monsters pointed its gun barrel at him. Every muscle in his body locked up. He couldn't breathe. He just stared down the glowing black metal, thinking that the only thing waiting for him was an even darker blackness. The monster raised his rifle toward the house in a swishing motion that told the riolu to stand. The child coaxed his body to move so as not to waste what would probably be his only chance. He got up and ran to the door. It swung open with ease. His mother had not locked it, risking a monster breaking in just in case her son made it home. She was so weak, lying in her bed barely able to raise her head when he entered. The room became peaceful to him despite the three armed beasts standing just outside the door. He had made it.

He knelt down next to her head, tears pouring down his face along with the still fresh rain that had soaked his fur. He opened the bag and pulled out the mason jar of pills. His shaking paw moved under her head and raised it slightly. He dropped two pills into her slightly ajar mouth. She coughed as the pills fought their way down. A trickle of blood spilled from the side of her mouth. He embraced her, sobbing into her shoulder. "Please, momma. Please get better," he begged between coughs and sniffles. "I think they want to take me. I'm scared. I need you to come save me." He felt a pressure on his back, his mother's paw. She had summoned what little strength she had left to hold him.

His ear twitched again at the sound of the monster's looking inside his house. He separated from her so that they wouldn't grow impatient and shoot her. The paw she had placed on his back had tightened as she tried to hold him back from them, but she was far too weak to stop anything. He moved the bag of pills next to her head so she could see them and take more and then stepped backward toward the door, keeping his eyes on her, hoping that by some miracle she could suddenly leap up and pull him back from this death sentence. Despite his pleas to her, he was certain he would never see her again. He was fairly certain they would kill him as soon as the door closed.

When he was within arm's reach, one of them reached out and gripped his shoulder, dragging him out the door. He turned back toward them and dropped to his knees. The jagged broken stones stabbed into his shins as he fell forward, but he didn't react this time. He was already crying, so tears of pain would only be redundant, and he felt too numb with the knowledge that he was about to die to bother with the pain. He lowered his head so that the barrel of the gun would have a straight path into his brain. Hopefully he could at least die quickly.

The arm reached down again and grabbed his arm, yanking him out of his kneeling position so quickly he didn't have time to straighten his legs and fell down again. The monster pulled him up once more, and another put thick metal cuffs on his wrists behind his smooth dull paw spikes so that he couldn't slip them off. The metal was far too heavy for a weak pup like him to handle, and his arms dropped down. The second monster put a collar made of the same metal on his neck, looping the chain connected to it under the chain holding his paws together and yanking it up. The riolu winced as he was suddenly choked, the weight of the cuffs on his paws now transferred to his neck. The monsters started walking, the first walking up front holding the chain that dragged him along and the other two following behind him, firearms pointed at the back of his head. He cooperated the best he could, but he was exhausted. The chains had to weigh almost as much as he did.

The group of four came upon the larger black flood of the other monsters. One of the new monsters broke formation and approached. It eyed the riolu for a moment, looked to the monster pulling him, and nodded. The entire formation turned, each set of three green eyes becoming dark as they turned away from him, and began to march toward the periphery of the colony. By the time they were at the point where the houses no longer lined the streets, the riolu was ready to drop. His footpaws ached with the hours of running and walking he had been put through, sweat mixed with the rain and tears, and his breath fought its way past the tight metal collar with heavy labored breathing. Waiting for them was a new wall of black: four-wheeled machines he had never seen before. He could only think to describe them as carts no one seemed to have to pull. The back of one opened, and the monster in control of him pulled him inside.

The entirety of the inside was metal. He was pushed onto a sheet of metal that stuck out from the wall. The chain connected to his collar was pulled out from under the chain between his paws, finally allowing them to drop into his lap, and secured to a hook on the wall. One monster sat down on either side of him and three took a seat on a sheet of metal on the other side. The machine let out a piercing growl as it started to life, causing him to jump in fright. He felt the machine began to shake. They were moving. The beasts were silent, bright green eyes either staring straight ahead vacantly or glaring at him. He shivered from both fear and the icy cold of the metal on his back. The chain was too tight for him to pull even an inch away from the wall.

Alone with his thoughts, he began to imagine what they were planning to do with him when they got to wherever they were taking him. Thoughts of torture, each more horrific than the last, commanded his attention. He whimpered at the thought of the monsters finally opening their mouths to reveal rows of jagged teeth, dripping with saliva in anticipation of ripping him apart. His stomach churned at the imagined sound of his tiny bones crunching in their jaws. He almost wished they had shot him.

Eventually he began to notice some more light passing through the barred windows positioned at the top of each wall, far too high up for him to see through them. He could see greater definition in the uniforms the monsters wore, still black as night but with multiple layers and armor pads. He took special notice of the three green eyes. They seemed to stick out from each monster's head. He could see light reflect off the smooth cylinder that connected the eye to the head. The monsters were indeed dressed. Their true appearance was something he wondered about but dreaded the consequences of seeing.

He focused back on the light, which was becoming even brighter as time went on. Pretty soon it was almost blinding. He squinted but didn't look away. From the stinging brightness started to come forms, towering buildings rose up around the vehicle. The houses to which the riolu was accustomed would never have made it into view of the high window, but these seemed to rise endlessly into the dark cloudy sky. Was this where the monsters lived? He was astounded that such dark-clad creatures could inhabit a city that seemed almost completely made of pure light. He looked at the motionless monsters, trying to rationalize what they were, what they did, and what they wanted him for. Why hadn't they killed him like all the others? What awaited him in the city bathed in light?


	3. Chapter 3: Pulled Tight

Chapter 3: Pulled Tight

The light suddenly vanished and soon after the vehicle lurched to a halt. He would've fallen off his seat were the wall chain not holding him so tightly. He let out a pained cough that he quickly stifled lest he trigger the hatred the monsters seemed to be suppressing at the moment. They didn't react. They were like statues, so disciplined and resolute that not even the lurching stop of the vehicle fazed them. They were a far different breed than he was. The door slid open and the monsters flooded out, leaving him alone for a few seconds in shock of how quickly they had moved despite their size.

He barely had time to realize he was alone though, for almost instantly a new pack of monsters boarded the vehicle. They were similar in shape but dressed differently: black uniforms were replaced by teal scrubs, guns traded in for grasping blue hands, and most strikingly three glowing green eyes changed to eyes of varying colors. They swiftly unhooked him from the wall and removed the chains from his cuffs and collar. One took hold of him and dragged him out, throwing him on a wheeled table. His paws were secured beside his head, which was also locked down at the neck. Two more restraints were placed on his ankles, and the monsters began to push him down a long hallway. The painfully bright light returned, but the source was no longer the astounding towers, just buzzing tube lights.

He looked up at the monsters surrounding him. While their eyes were no longer as piercing and dead as the three green eyes worn by the monsters in black, they were still either locked on him or staring straight ahead as if he didn't exist. He didn't bother struggling. The cuffs and collar had already showed him there was no sense in that. Somehow the table on which he lay was even colder than the walls of the vehicle that had brought him here. He shivered and continued to wonder if it was more from the cold or from the fear of what they planned to do with him.

A loud bang signaled a change. Before him had been a set of double doors that the wheeled table had slammed into and subsequently pushed through. The riolu's toes curled with a frightened shudder, thankful that it was not his bare footpaws that had been the means by which the door was opened. The rolling finally stopped, and the monsters separated from him. It was then that he heard them speak. He jumped in surprise. Despite their clear strong organization and advanced technology, he hadn't imagined that such monsters bothered to speak through anything other than the medium of death. He found he understood them but not what they said. Though their language appeared similar to his own, the subject matter about which they spoke was leagues over his head. This only unnerved him more. Simple-minded well-armed monsters could kill him. Intelligent well-armed monsters could torture him.

One of the monsters approached him again and rubbed a spot on his arm with a damp square of cloth. The riolu clenched his fists, shut his eyes, and held his breath, anticipating the start of the pain. What followed was a sharp but brief poke in the dampened area. He peeked out from behind his eyelids to see a tube pulling blood out of him. He started sniffling again with the thought of the monsters bleeding him dry running through his mind. He was surprised when the monster pulled the needle out of him and walked away, leaving a small white patch of cloth with a spot of red soaking through on his arm. He calmed his welling tears and wondered what value such a small amount of his blood could hold. Other monsters surrounded him once more, muttering a collection of completely unfamiliar terms to each other. One set a pair of pincers on his head and wrote down something about how far apart they were. Another pulled on his tail a bit and measured it as well. A small metal wiring system was pushed into his mouth and forced it open, allowing another monster to swab his saliva and make a mold of his teeth by pushing clay overtop of them. He winced, cringed, and shivered through the process, feeling tremendously vulnerable and violated by the monsters but fortunately only slightly poked and prodded instead of hurt.

He heard the doors open again and a new monster entered. It was dressed in a white double-breasted coat and a reflective metal disk secured to his forehead by a black band. Its skin was blue like the others, but it seemed almost more alive to him. Its eyes had emotion and its lips were curled into a slight smirk, an expression the riolu had never seen on the monsters nor thought it was possible for the monsters to generate. The new monster casually walked up to him and looked him straight in the eye. His lip quivered nervously. The monster placed its hand on his bare stomach, pushing down on it slightly to make him wince. The other monsters spoke to this new one, regurgitating all the strange words and numbers, and the new monster nodded along with the same satisfied smirk. His heart nearly skipped a beat when the new monster looked down at him and spoke to him directly.

"A picture of perfect health…all things considered," it said in a high-pitched but masculine voice. The metal disk on its head reflected a beam of light into the pup's eyes. He squinted but was too frightened to look away. The new monster lightly tapped his belly with a finger on the hand already pressing on him. "We were beginning to think nothing would come out of that colony worth using. Guess they had to have someone like you somewhere." Someone like him? He bit his lower lip to stop it from trembling. The new monster turned back to the others. "This one will do. Vaccinate him then give him to Belmore." And with that, the new monster was off. Per its order, the other monsters surrounded him for a final time to push multiple needles under his skin. Some delivered theirs at the same time to force out a few more tears from him. Some gave him only a single shot but with a substance that burned as it was pushed into his blood. He had managed not to start crying again, but by the end he was clearly showing signs of fighting the pain back, namely a heaving chest and a running nose.

A few of the monsters pushed him out of the room. He caught his breath and relaxed a bit, thinking that the poking and prodding was done for now. They took him to a stark white room and took him off the table. One held him while another tied his paws behind his back with soft yet strong white rope. Some more was wrapped around his arms and upper torso and knotted off. It still scared him to be bound before these hulking creatures but at least the rope didn't have the weight the cuffs and collar did. One monster left the room while two others stayed with him. He didn't struggle or say a word to either. They seemed to want him for something, so he was allowed to live, and as long as he cooperated the pain was kept to a minimum.

Before long the monster in scrubs returned with a yet another new monster. This one seemed a bit pudgier than the others, had a spot on either side of his snout where the scales stuck out in a slight curl like a mustache, and wore what looked like rather nice clothes: a black three-piece suit with bright silk lapels, a crisp white shirt complete with pearl cufflinks and a starched upright collar, a wide-knotted tie, and a black bowler hat. No one in his colony ever dressed like that, most likely because they were never able to. The new monster looked over the pup and let out a satisfied chortle.

"A boy?" he asked the monster that had brought him in in a low and bristly tone. The monster nodded. "Splendid. Well, off we go." He extended his pointer finger toward the riolu and curled it back towards himself in a gesture that instructed him to follow. The riolu cautiously obeyed and approached him. The well-dressed behemoth put a hand on his shoulder and led him down the hall, keeping a commanding grip on him but in a way that communicated both control and some form of friendliness. "Do you speak?" he asked. The riolu looked at him and nervously nodded. The monster shot him an amused but also slightly unsatisfied look. "One would normally answer such a question by speaking, my boy," he said with a slight chuckle.

He gulped. "I-I…don't know what to say," the riolu answered.

"That'll suffice. How about an introduction as well?" the monster replied. The riolu was silent. "That's your name, boy. Your name."

"H-Harmon, sir," he answered.

"Harmon, eh? Well I suppose that's a satisfactory name. Pity." He pulled a slip of paper from the inside of his suit coat, crumpled it, and threw it away. The riolu was stunned silent for a moment that he was almost renamed without having even known it. "Well my name is Mr. Sigmond Belmore, but you will be exclusively addressing me as Mr. Belmore. Of course sir is also satisfactory." He nodded. He felt a little hopeful that this meant he would be kept alive at least a little longer.

The two passed through another door and were suddenly outside. The beautiful towers were now in full view before them and no longer limited by the small barred window. Mr. Belmore gave him only a moment to look before pulling him into the back of a new black four-wheeled vehicle. It was smaller than the one that he brought him here, but it still ran under its own power like the previous one. The vehicle was also vastly different on the inside. Cold metal walls and seats were replaced with soft leather, high barred windows were replaced with tinted glass windows, and terrifying emptiness was replaced with varnished wood detailing, a climate controlled bucket of ice with two bottles of wine chilling in them, and a heating system that turned the air to blankets.

Once inside, Mr. Belmore untied the ropes around his upper torso. "We shouldn't be needing these, should we?" he asked rhetorically while still leaving the riolu's paws bound. He pulled the seat belt across his chest and buckled him in before sitting down next to him. The vehicle began to move, leaving the two to sit in silence for a few moments. Harmon found himself confused by the rather cheery demeanor of his new captor, which only made him more nervous. "My you certainly are a dirty one," the monster commented. "But we'll remedy that shortly. Tell me, son. What are you?" Harmon looked at him in confusion; a far too broad question to ask one already so frazzled. He sighed and pinched the skin between his eyes. "I should've expected as much." He put a hand to his chest. "I am a blastoise: identified by blue skin, a large wide stature, a shell which I conceal beneath my attire, and an ability to weaponize water via cannons concealed within the aforementioned shell." The shoulders of the monster's suit began to shift, revealing slits cut in the back of the coat to allow two white cannons to emerge. Harmon's heart skipped a beat. They were the exact same as those that stuck out of the backs of the ones who had captured him. The cannons receded. "As you can see, I am quite different from you. I call those differences blastoise. What do you call your differences?" He reached over and grasped one of the aura sensors that hung from the pup's head. He flinched.

"Riolu!" he blurted out. The blastoise took out a clipboard from a pocket of the seat in front of him.

"Riolu? Good good. How do you spell that?" he asked. Harmon was silent. His face turned red, and he looked down in shame. "Illiterate?" The riolu shot him a confused look again. "That's to be expected. I'll just sound it out," he said, scribbling on the paper attached to the board. "Now does your species change? And to preemptively deal with the obvious difficulty you'll have with that question, do your parents look like you?" He shook his head. "So you have at least one other stage. Do you know what that stage is called?" He nodded.

"L-Lucario, sir," he answered.

"And of course you don't know how to spell that, so I'll just guess again. Not that it matters much," he continued. He wrote down a few more things and then put the clipboard away. "Let's go over how this evening will play out. I will get you cleaned up and looking like a gentleman. It'll be your job to deny your penchants and behave as such." He nervously nodded, having no idea what he meant by any of that but knowing that agreeing was keeping him safe.

The vehicle stopped in front of one of the towers, a relatively small one compared to the rest but no less bright. He got his first taste of freedom when the ropes holding his wrists were taken off. He didn't abuse the privilege and kept still until pulled along by the blastoise again. The inside of the tower was filled to the brim with clothing, some on par with what Mr. Belmore was wearing, many far nicer. A blastoise emerged from around a corner dressed in a blue dress shirt with a white collar and cuffs, black trousers, and a gold tie. He stretched out his arms in a welcoming fashion and exchanged smiles with Mr. Belmore. "Sigmond! I haven't seen you since the holidays!" He leaned down and put his face right next to Harmon's who leaned back slightly in discomfort, a single bead of sweat forming on the side of his head. "Why must they be so small and thin? Oh well, I always make it work." Mr. Belmore handed him a slip of paper. "They sent the measurements this time?" He shrugged. "Still, measure twice, cut once."

He took the riolu by the paw and pulled him up on a carpet-covered podium in front of three mirrors, one set straight ahead with the other two angled slightly toward him. His legs wobbled uneasily and the shy blush returned as he stared at his dirty battered form reflected back at him. The monster tailor brought out a thin yellow tape and wrapped it around him in various places. He shuddered when at one point the tape was wrapped around his neck like a noose. This didn't seem to bother the tailor a bit. He casually hummed through the process and after having completed taking down the measurements, picked the pup up by the scruff of his neck, took him into a room hidden out of view, and dropped him into an old metal tub of cold water. A frigid shock shot through the little canine's body, instantly reminding him of four-wheeled prison that had brought him here. "While I prepare your outfit, you will clean yourself up." Harmon's nod was barely visible through his shivering.

When he was finally able to pull his arms from his shaking torso, he picked up a gnarled grey rag hung over the side of the tub, hesitantly dipped it into the water, and began to clean the tear stains off his cheek. It felt somewhat nice to clean all the grit and grime off, but even the purest water was tainted with the knowledge that it was the element of the monsters. He still didn't understand how the monsters in black could be the same breed as the ones now deciding his fate. They seemed to be more occupied with doing something else with him than killing him, which didn't match how their kind treated his kind. He had no courage to ask, but it didn't stop him from wondering. He finished cleaning himself up and got out to shake himself dry. Not knowing what to do with himself, he peeked out of the room and looked around at the myriad of different outfits. He cautiously stepped up to one of the racks and touched the sleeve of a suit coat. The fabric glided between his fingers effortlessly. For any from his colony that could afford clothing, materials such as these were only a pipe dream. He had been given a coat once. It was made of thick, plain-colored wool, and the bottom half unwound up to the sleeves that essentially made it worthless, but he had loved it. It was warm, crafted by his mother's tireless work, and by far the most luxurious thing he had ever owned. These clothes made it look like the rag he had just used to clean himself.

"There you are!" The blastoise tailor shouted, reaching down and grabbing him by the shoulder. His fur stood on end in fright. "A surprisingly good job. I half-expected to have to clean you myself. Now let's get you dressed." He pulled him back to the podium. Harmon stared into his reflection once more. With the blood, dirt, and tear stains washed away, he almost looked like a creature worthy of dignity, a drastically different experience from his last look in the mirror. The tailor took one of his arms and slid it through the sleeve of a white dress shirt. Still warm from the iron, it slipped down his arm and up onto his shoulder with the same smoothness as the coat had slipped through his fingers before. The tailor brought the shirt behind his back and put on the other arm. The fabric was thinner than his old wool coat, but this seemed to be the point. As the silver cufflinks brought the sleeves tight around his wrists and the shining black studs were applied to the front of the shirt, his fur was tamed into sleek obedience by the article of clothing, accentuating his thin form in a way that almost made it look purposeful and not a result of a lifetime of meager meals.

At the top of the shirt was a stiff starched collar, which the tailor forced to be uncomfortably tight against his neck and secured with a silver pearl pin that forced a cough out of him when it was stuck too far and poked his neck. The top of the collar rubbed gently against the bottom of his cheek. The silky touch felt almost like a hand caressing his face, and it caused him to blush and the tailor to laugh. "My work is something else, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. The riolu nodded. He went back to work, bringing out a pair of white trousers, pure as snow save for a light grey stripe that ran up the side of each leg. He had never worn pants before, and these were rather tight for a first time experience. The legs left no space between the fabric and his fur, and his tail had to be crammed into the back before being pulled out of a hole cut for it. "This blasted thing is so unruly!" the tailor complained as he finished pulling the tail through, yanking it rather hard and forcing Harmon to bite his lip to avoid yelping out in pain. "Why can't your kind have nice short tails like ours?" He turned around to show off his small blue tail that poked out from his trousers. Harmon pulled his tail around and tidied the fur that had been shifted out of place. It seemed silly to think of something so petty, but he liked his tail better than the blastoise's.

Next came a pale purple silk vest. It felt a bit thicker than the shirt and hugged his torso with a pleasant, almost comforting warmth. He rubbed the silky exterior with his paw, amazed by its smooth texture and shine. He had no idea clothing could shine. It was if an amethyst ore had been melted into a shimmering pool, fusing the deep purple of the gem and the pale grey of the stone, and reformed into a semi-solid form that while holding together in its intended shape, could ebb and flow as the light cast upon it shifted. The pleasant hug was turned once again to an uncomfortable vice as the tailor took the purple silk ribbons in the back of the garment used to adjust the vest's tightness, pulled them both until the riolu's breath was squeezed out of him, and knotted them off in a bow behind his back. It took almost a full minute for his breath to return to a level suitable for keeping him conscious.

The tailor repeated his method for putting the shirt on him for a white suit coat with light grey lapels that matched the stripes on his trousers. Harmon noticed that the bottom of the coat didn't quite stretch as low as his shirt or vest but instead stopped at his navel level. The tailor didn't seem bothered by this, rather it seemed that this was the intended design. It was at this point that the multiple layers on him were starting to make him feel hot under the intense lights focused on the stand. In addition to the outfit being far nicer than any clothing he was used to, the sheer volume of clothing on him was cumbersome.

"And now, the final touch," the tailor declared proudly, draping a pale purple bow tie around the riolu's neck. Harmon watched the seemingly large and clumsy hands deftly turn the strip of silk into the traditional bow tie shape. Once finished, two fingers on each hand grasped the wide sides of the tie and pulled outward in tandem to tighten it. The back of the central knot pushed on the silver pin holding together the collar. The tailor crouched down and held the pup by the sides of his arms, putting the whole outfit on display in all three mirrors. His face, now being held level with the riolu's, wore a satisfied smirk. "Sometimes I even amaze myself. I can turn anything into a gentleman." Harmon's blush became a bit brighter, turning from two pink cheeks to a strip of red color running across his face.

The monster tailor pushed him off the podium and patted his back with both palms, coaxing him to hurry up. As restricted as he felt, the riolu did his best to obey and shuffled quickly back to Mr. Belmore who met him with an approving nod. "You're a miracle-worker, Alamere," the mustachioed blastoise said as he took his charge by the shoulder. The tailor adjusted his tie, puffed out his chest, let out a little puff of air from his nose, and closed his eyes in smug success.

"Should I place it on your tab as usual?" he asked seemingly fairly rhetorically.

"Of course. I have a feeling I'll be back," Mr. Belmore replied, gripping the riolu's shoulder a little tighter. The two laughed while the young pup worried about what that meant for him. The monster and his now well-dressed captive exited the building and headed back toward the car. "I've officially invested in you, child. It would behoove you to make yourself worth the cost," Mr. Belmore said in a satisfied yet slightly threatening tone. Harmon gulped. The monster stopped him in front of the car door and turned him to face him. He reached down, gripped the wide sides of the bow tie and pulled it tight once more.


End file.
